


Of Reluctant Guardian Angels and Unfairly Adorable Humans

by xxTheSkateboardingTurtlexx



Category: GOT7
Genre: Bullying, Cute, Guardian Angels, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mark is an angel, One Shot, my first long fic yay, some fluff and humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 05:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7210655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxTheSkateboardingTurtlexx/pseuds/xxTheSkateboardingTurtlexx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Youngjae has been dreaming of meeting his guardian angel ever since he was kid. Mark never wanted to become a guardian angel. Somehow, Mark ends up being Youngjae's guardian angel, and maybe this job isn't as bad as it seems.<br/>Based off the prompt: I was a little shithead in heaven and as a punishment I have to be your guardian angel and I hate it, but hey you're cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Reluctant Guardian Angels and Unfairly Adorable Humans

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first long fic.  
> School starts next week and I know I'll have less time to write when it does, so I really wanted to write a long fic before my summer ended.  
> I love Markjae and I hope I have done them justice.  
> I hope you guys enjoy!

Ever since the age of 8, Choi Youngjae has been dreaming of meeting his guardian angel. He counts down the days to his 16th birthday eagerly crossing off the days on an old tattered 10 year calendar, waiting for the day when he would meet his guardian angel.

His mom tells him not to get his hopes up. There have been an increasing number of cases where people do not have a guardian angel (scientists claim that it’s because of the exploding population but no one can explain the selection process. In fact it was more common not to have one than to have one, these days.) And the last thing his mom wants is for her little boy to have his high hopes dashed. So, every once in a while, she would show her son articles of people not having guardian angels, or even worse cases where people did have guardian angels but their angels were abusive (an easy feat considering the supernatural abilities, including strength of guardian angels.) There had even been cases where people had died at the hands of their guardian angels. Other adults condemned her, claiming such articles were too harsh to show a young boy but his mom continued, claiming it was the only way to keep her flighty son even a little bit grounded. But despite his mom’s best efforts, Youngjae’s faith remained undeterred. He believed whole-heartedly that there is definitely a guardian angel in heaven for him.

In a world where everyone seemed hell-bent on being cruel to him (outside his family, well immediate family, all his cousins thought he was too weird to approach), like his teachers who claimed that the only way to improve his attention span was by denying him al leisure activities or corporeal punishment or the kids in his class who called him weird and made fun of the few kids who did talk to him, effectively ending all of his friendships (most children had decided that they were better off ignoring one weird harmless child, instead of offending the head honchos of the playground.) , the idea of having someone to care for him and look after him was very appealing to Youngjae.

While most kids his age chose comics or children’s books as their preferred reading material, Youngjae immersed himself in thick novels involving guardian angels that most adults claimed were too _advanced_ for him but that never deterred the young child who would skip over the words he didn’t know or understand, and just enjoy the basic story, not bothering with the hidden metaphors and symbolism, unlike most readers of such work.

His favourite stories were the ones in which the human fell in love with their guardian angel. Sometimes, he wondered if he would fall in love with his guardian angel and his angel would love him back. But those thoughts made him more embarrassed than happy.  Plus, considering the general opinion of kids his age, wanting someone to love him seemed a bit greedy. Youngjae would be completely satisfied if his guardian angel was just nice to him and kept him company during those lonely recesses where he would inevitably be ignored by the rest of the kids his age.

All in all Choi Youngjae was the type of kid who was fine with suffering in the present because he was convinced that the future would be full of rainbows and roses.

******

Mark never wanted to be a guardian angel. The whole affair seemed tedious, taking care of a human for the rest of their life until they finally died and you could return to heaven.

Of course there were perks to becoming a guardian angel, even more so if you volunteered more than once, though such cases were rare. Good deeds didn’t go unrewarded, especially in heaven. But as far as Mark could see the cons of the whole situation drastically outweighed the pros.

His train of thought was interrupted by a sharp voice “All forms must be filled out and submitted in the next 5 minutes. Thank you.”

He frowned at the question on the paper, asking the gender of human he preferred. The options were severely outdated, offering just the binary options. He sighed and ticked male. As sexist as his opinion may seem, he was pretty sure there was less of a possibility of him being dragged into some romantic fantasy if it was a male.

Even if he had no issues with whatever gender his romantic partner was or was not, the whole situation of a romantic relationship between an angel and a human was even more tedious than normal romantic relationships which Mark already found tedious enough.

Considering Mark’s aversion to the whole guardian angel affair, one might wonder what he doing filling out an application form to become a guardian angel.

In one word the answer would be: Jackson. Mark’s fellow angel and best friend had claimed that life in heaven was way too boring for his taste, and it was up to them to spice things up. (In Jackson’s words “It’s technically a good deed, we’re making sure no one dies of boredom.)

Long story short, their little prank had apparent gone against Rule No. 165 (One Shall Not Create Unnecessary Noise between the Hours of 2 am and 4 am so as to avoid disturbance of those who are asleep.) and Rule No. 875 (One shall not resurrect an extinct species or try making a cross-breed between one or more extinct species.) And Jackson’s logic had unfortunately not been enough for the judges at the hearing for them to go scot-free.

They had 2 options; spend a year doing community service in Hell or become a guardian angel. As much as Mark hated the idea of becoming a guardian angel, the alternative was much much worse.

Contrary to popular belief, Hell wasn’t as bad a place as most human fantasy novels liked to claim, at least it wasn’t such a bad place for humans, it was more like a reform centre than anything else. But for angels, breathing the air of Hell was the equivalent of humans breathing in Ammonia. It wasn’t enough to kill you or anything like that but it was painful and disgusting enough for you to wish you were dead.

So much to his own dismay, Mark had chosen to become a guardian angel. If this was a few 100 years ago, he could hope that maybe there would be no humans in need of him. But times had changed and the human population was multiplying rapidly. Every guardian angel was accepted, screening process be damned (even the ones who filled out To _Mess With Other Humans_ as their reason for wanting to become a guardian angel. Yep, these were certainly desperate times.)

Mark just hoped his human didn’t have high hopes for him. (And that he didn’t have the lifespan of turtle, but he figured that was pretty insensitive comment for an immortal creature to say.)

**

Youngjae woke up on the morning of his sixteenth birthday to be greeted by a pair of big brown eyes (kind of like the ones of his favourite puppy from the pet store, Coco.) For a minute he wondered if his mom had finally relented on the whole dog issue and bought him Coco as a birthday gift but then he noticed the eyes were attached to a definitely human face, and a very attractive one at that.

Youngjae shot up, all drowsiness gone. He took in the stranger in his room. He wasn’t very tall, he looked to be about Youngjae’s height but his leaner build made him seem taller than he was. His hair was a dark shade of red. He looked exactly like the ideal angel; well, except for his wings. He had a pair of very small wings protruding from his shoulder blades. He looked very annoyed at the moment.

“Who are you?” Youngjae muttered, more to himself than to Mark.

Mark rolled his eyes in annoyance “Take a wild guess.” He said sarcastically, pointing to his wings.

“My guardian angel?” Youngjae guessed.

“Obviously.” Mark said, rolling his eyes again. “My name is Mark.”

“Okay, hi.” Youngjae said feeling awkward despite the fact that he had been waiting for this day for a long time. “My name is...”

“Choi Youngjae, yeah I know.” Mark interrupted. It had been less than a minute but he was already ready to quit. He couldn’t understand for the life of him why any angel would willingly submit themselves to this kind of torture.

Youngjae smiled at him, in an attempt to break the ice. Mark returned the gesture half-heartedly. He had to admit the human looked quite cute when he smiled. He immediately admonished himself for even thinking that.

“You are not a stereotype or a character in a cheesy romance novel.” Mark whispered to himself, ignoring the weird look Youngjae gave him.

Before either one of them could speak, the door swung open to reveal a harried Mrs. Choi.

“Happy birthday, baby! But you have to get out of bed; it’s almost time for school.” She said with a sigh of exasperation at the sight of her son, still in bed.

Her eyes widened as she noticed the other presence in the room “Hi, and you are.” She said, extending an arm half-way. Mark could instantly tell where Youngjae got his awkward vibe from.

“Hi, I’m Mark. I am Youngjae’s guardian angel.” Mark said, taking her hand and shaking it firmly.

Mrs. Choi breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh okay, phew.” She said. Making sure that Youngjae wasn’t looking at them, she turned to Mark lowering her voice to a whisper “I’m glad you’re here, Youngjae was really looking forward to you” she said a grateful smile on her face. She turned back to Youngjae “Honey, get ready soon, breakfast will ready in 5.” She said before leaving the room.

Mark resisted the urge to groan out loud. This was exactly what he had feared. Someone who was ‘looking forward’ to their guardian angel, someone who had some weird expectations fuelled by romantic novels for him.

“Hey Mark-sshi, can I ask you something?” Youngjae asked, breaking Mark’s train of thought.

Mark nodded half-heartedly, expecting some cheesy line taken out of one of those horribly inaccurate novels, especially considering the way Youngjae looked so nervous.

“How come your wings are so small?” Youngjae burst out, looking at Mark with unbridled curiosity.

Mark prickled. His wings were a sensitive subject for him. Sure, not all angels had the same wingspan, but his were undoubtedly the smallest wings in the history of angels. Someone had once suggested that your wingspan was proportional to the amount of good deeds you do which would explain why Kim Seokjin had one of the largest wingspans Mark had ever seen. That boy was literally the definition of the perfect angel. But then again, Jackson had a larger wingspan than Mark so that explanation was thrown out of the window. Even so, Mark’s wings had always bothered the angel more than he liked to let on but he wasn’t about to tell a human he had just met about one of his biggest insecurities so instead he settled for a “I didn't even want to become a guardian angel.” he said, hoping his tone implied the subject was closed.

Mark couldn't help but feel a little guilty at Youngjae's crestfallen face. "You didn't? So how come you're a guardian angel?" he asked.

"It's a long story." Mark said simply, waving it off. "Basically, we're stuck together till you die." he said with a shrug.

Youngjae's eyes widened "You're not going to kill me, right?" he asked, genuine fear in his voice.

Mark resisted the urge to chuckle at the human's reaction. "No, even if I wanted to I don't think I could." he said with a shrug, picking up a frying pan from Youngjae's desk (part of his brain wondered why Youngjae even had a frying pan on his desk.) He swung at the younger's forehead, expecting it to pass through the human, but instead.

_**Thwack** _

Mark cringed at the sound as Youngjae let out a yelp of pain, rubbing his forehead trying to get rid of the pain. 

"I'm so sorry." Mark said genuinely apologetic.

Youngjae looked unconvinced about the sincerity of Mark's apology but shrugged his shoulders nonetheless. "I'm just going to go get ready for school before you try to kill me again." he said with a wry smile that Mark couldn't help but return.

The school day was pretty standard by Mark’s expectations. He noticed that Youngjae didn’t seem to have any friends and that he was actively ignored in the hallways and in classes but he chose not to ask the younger about, he didn’t want to pry on their first day together.

It was lunch time now. Youngjae and Mark were sitting alone at a table. The younger looked so forlorn, Mark, for some inexplicable reason wanted to make him feel better. But he didn’t know what could serve as an appropriate conversation topic.

Before he could think of anything, two tall boys approached their table.

“Hey weirdo, sitting alone again I see.” One of them sneered.

Youngjae actively looked down, not bothering to respond to the jibes. Apparently, this didn’t seem to please the two boys very much, judging by their harsh glares.

“Hey look at us when we talk to you.” One of them barked, moving his slimy hand towards Youngjae’s face to jerk it up.

Now, Mark wasn’t one to anger quickly. He was actually quite even tempered, even by an angel’s standards. But if there was one thing he hated, it was bullies. And the sight of **his** human sitting defenceless while two bullies leered at him, did not sit well with Mark.

He suddenly stood; his chair screeching as it was pushed back, alerting the attention of almost everyone in the lunchroom.

“Don’t touch him.” He whispered menacingly, grabbing the bully’s wrist before his hand could reach Youngjae, almost crushing it with his vice grip.

“Oh yeah what’re you going to do about it?” The second scoffed.

Mark glared at them, a mask of calm hiding his internal fury. “This” he answered simply, he said punching the second square in the jaw, increasing his grip on the first one’s wrist making him cry out in pain.

The whole lunchroom was shocked into silence.

“I might be just half your size but don’t forget that angels come with superhuman strength, so think twice.” Mark whispered dangerously.

 Both boys knew that this was a fight that they couldn’t possibly win so they slinked away, but not without throwing both Mark and Youngjae a dirty look that Mark returned with equal venom first.

Mark took a deep breath to calm himself when he felt a slight tug at this shirt. He turned to be greeted by an embarrassed Youngjae.

“Thank you.” The younger whispered softly, a sincere smile on his face.

Mark was no stranger to gratitude, after all doing good deeds was basically part of an angel’s job description but never before had a simple thanks left him this flustered with an unfamiliar warm glow in his chest.

******

Despite their initial clashes, 5 months later and Mark could honestly say that _maybe_ this whole guardian angel thing wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

Even if Youngjae had seemed a little too guardian angel-obsessed for Mark at first sight he had quickly found out that the younger was not at all demanding that Mark be the ideal guardian angel.

He was fine with Mark doing whatever he wanted. Even if Mark ignored him for days, the younger wouldn’t make a fuss. Once Mark had inquired why the younger was never upset when Mark was moody, and the younger had told him he was used to it and he was just happy that Mark always came back and still talked to him.

And while Mark wasn’t one to usually feel guilty, Youngjae’s words had made him feel so guilt-ridden he had laved the younger with all the affection he could for about a week, till Youngjae finally lashed out about how he didn’t need Mark’s pity affection.(Mark still constantly kept him company though, except in the school restrooms, that place was excruciatingly smelly, especially for Mark’s incredibly sensitive nose.)

That was what Mark liked about Youngjae. The younger was soft and sweet but he wasn’t weak. He had a fiery side, even if he didn’t choose to showcase it often, it was still there and Mark could definitely appreciate that.

He looked up from his current choice of reading material, one of Youngjae’s numerous romance guardian angel-themed novels. Despite, the extreme cheesiness and multitude of inaccuracies, Mark had found that they were actually extremely enjoyable to read (though he would rather die, than admit that to Youngjae who would get all smug about it.) and he had been going through Youngjae’s seemingly inexhaustible collection pretty quickly except that every once in a while he had to ask Youngjae to explain some slang words that he was unable to comprehend. In Mark’s opinion, the younger looked way too happy whenever Mark asked for his help. (Though he would deny it if anyone asked, sometimes he would ask about words he already knew just to the see the younger’s face light up like a Christmas tree.)

He noticed Youngjae running his hands through his hair in frustration (one of the younger’s many habits Mark had picked up on.) as he gazed at whatever was on his desk exasperatedly.

Mark put down his book (after noting the page number mentally, he was close to the climax, now would not be a good time to lose his page.) in favour of ‘helping’ Youngjae.

“What’s wrong?” he called out to the dark haired male.

Youngjae turned towards Mark and instantly his eyes lit up, as if just noticing the elder’s presence in the room. (Mark tried to suppress it but he couldn’t the warm glow spreading through his chest at the way Youngjae’s eyes lit up at the sight of him.) “Mark-hyung, do you know English?” Youngjae asked, there was a hint of hopefulness and desperation mingled into his voice.

Mark thanked all his lucky stars for the fact that he was, indeed fluent in English. (He would have hated to disappoint the younger when he looked that desperate.) He slowly nodded, smiling fondly when Youngjae’s harried expression morphed into one of relief.  

“That’s great, can you help me with this assignment, please.” The younger half-pleaded.

Mark got up from his spot and made his to Youngjae. He wrapped one arm around the younger’s shoulder not even registering the action, leaning in to take a closer look at this assignment that was giving Youngjae so much grief.

It wasn’t that hard, it was a pretty basic worksheet with fill in the blanks asking for the appropriate tense. Mark guided Youngjae through the questions; explaining as well as he could whenever the younger had a doubt.

“So what do you think it will be over here?” Mark asked pointing to the last question.

Youngjae read the sentence once or twice, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “Is it _went_?” he asked, uncertainty present in his voice. “ _She went to the market yesterday?_ _”_ he read out, looking at Mark for confirmation.

Mark grinned at the younger and shot him a thumbs-up “Perfect.” Youngjae grinned back at Mark’s compliment.

A moment later he spoke again “How do you know such fluent English anyway?” he asked.

“Most of the angels speak to each other in English.” Mark explained. “Because we’re all from different parts of the world, English is the common language we use to communicate.” He said, suddenly feeling nostalgic, even if it had only been a few months, whether he wanted to admit or not, he did miss his friends from heaven. He wondered how Jackson was doing, if his human was _almost_ as nice as Youngjae. (Mark didn’t think it was possible to be as nice as Youngjae.) He pitied the human who had to deal with Jackson and his loud clingy nature 24/7. He hoped Jackson had found a human who was similar to him so they could be loud together. The idea of Jackson being the guardian angel for an introverted or serious human made Mark chuckle inwardly.

“So you have to know English to become an angel?” Youngjae said wistfully, breaking Mark’s train of thought.

Mark considered the question for a moment “Well, it’s not a pre-requisite.” He said slowly. “But it does make life easier if you know English. But there are lots of angels I know who learnt English after they became angels.” He added.

Youngjae nodded slowly “So, how does a human become an angel?” he asked, a hint of hope in his tone.

Youngjae’s question reminded Mark of an excerpt from one of the younger’s books. He hadn’t found this book amongst the others in the bookshelf. Youngjae had kept this book separately under his pillow. It was slightly more risqué than the other books. Its frayed condition implied that the younger had read this particular book quite a few times.

Mark smirked as he started to quote the book in question. “Well first, the angel bent down to meld his lips with hers. She could feel the tingling of the angelic powers in her lips. The sparks spread down her spine.”

Youngjae looked at Mark puzzled by the elder’s rambling. Mark continued, wondering how long it would take Youngjae to figure out where the words were coming from. “The power was almost too much for her to take. She tried to step back but his wings engulfed her, holding her in place..” Mark paused for a moment.

Youngjae’s eyes widened as he finally realized where he had seen those words before “Yah hyung!” he sputtered out, face completely red. “I can’t believe you read that book.” He muttered, pouting while Mark chuckled at the younger’s flustered face.

“Go away.” Youngjae muttered, still embarrassed.

“Aww, are you sure?” Mark teased, with a smirk on his face “Are you sure you don’t want me to engulf you with my wings?” he asked, enjoying having the upper hand. “I’m just kidding, the actual process is much more tedious and boring.” He added as an afterthought

“You couldn’t even engulf a grasshopper, if you wanted to with your wings.” Youngjae shot back, grinning when Mark shut up.

“Aww, hyung are you actually hurt?” Youngjae asked, when Mark didn’t speak for a while.

Mark looked away from Youngjae “You know I don’t like comments about my wings.” He said with a frown on his face.

“I’m sorry.” Youngjae said, sounding genuinely apologetic, forcing himself into Mark’s field of vision.

“You don’t mention the book again, and I’ll shut up about the wings?” Youngjae suggested, using the powerful combo of both his pout and puppy dog eyes.

Before Mark even knew what he was doing, he had already agreed. (Damn that boy, and his unfairly powerful pout.)

He watched fondly as Youngjae returned to his homework, a bright grin on his face.

Mark returned to the book he was reading earlier, though at this point he was less focused on the plot (it was pretty predictable anyway) and more focused on finding embarrassing excerpts to tease a certain dark-haired human with.

******

Mark stumbled upon the bruises completely by accident. It was one Saturday afternoon. Youngjae’s mother had gone to visit her sister, leaving Youngjae and Mark alone with enough home-cooked food in the fridge to feed an army, a series of warnings and of course the standard set of newspaper clippings detailing house thefts, murders and other crimes that happened when you left your house unattended or unlocked at any time of the day. Mark was pretty sure that Youngjae’s mom secretly enjoyed collecting grotesque articles and creeping out other people with their goriness.

Mark watched the bowl of food rotate in the microwave. He and Youngjae had decided to use the afternoon for a marathon of video games. Mark wasn’t particularly fond of them, (it **wasn’t** because he sucked at them, he would argue whenever Youngjae teased him about it, he just didn’t like video games and that was that.) But Youngjae was extremely fond of them, so Mark had agreed to be subjected to 4 hours of the dreaded games. He still didn’t understand what Youngjae possibly saw in those monotonous, predictable and much too bright games, but he chose not to question it, to save himself from the hour long rant that was sure to come, about the wonders of video games and all their merits. Mark had discovered early on that Youngjae could speak passionately for hours about the things he loved, namely video games, fantasy novels and some dog at the pet store called Coco who Youngjae claimed was simultaneously the cutest and most beautiful creature to walk this earth. Mark had a love-hate relationship with those rants, hate because they tended to stretch on, once Youngjae started it would take an earthquake (or dinner) for him to stop and love because the sight of Youngjae talking passionately about something he loved, eyes ablaze and hands gesticulating wildly was truly a sight Mark loved to see (and secretly hoped that no one else ever would, because Youngjae looked way too beautiful at those moments and the thought of others seeing him like that make Mark’s skin crawl.)  

His train of thought was broken by the insistent beeping of the microwave, indicating that the food was ready. He grabbed the food, almost dropping it because of the heat. He cursed softly (so as not to alarm Youngjae who was upstairs.), quickly running his hands under the cold water from the sink before grabbing the pair of oven mitts and slowly placing the bowl on a plastic tray. He left the oven mitts next to the microwave, the memory of Youngjae baking a few days ago popped into his heads. The younger had been wearing the same mitts. That day Mark had found out that while doing menial tasks such as cleaning the counter or beating eggs, Youngjae had a tendency to sing, well rather belt out catchy pop numbers, accompanying his vocals with frankly ridiculous dance routines. The mental image made Mark chuckle.

He made his way upstairs to Youngjae’s door. “Youngjae.” He called out, unable to open the door with the tray in his hands. Hearing no response, Mark sighed, the younger was probably daydreaming. He had a tendency to space out a lot. Mark sometimes wished that he could read minds, just to know what exactly was going on in Youngjae’s mind during his bouts of daydreaming. A selfish part of him wished that at least for a fraction of those times, Youngjae was thinking about him. He was pretty sure it was impossible for Mark to spend as much time in Youngjae’s thoughts as the younger did in his but an angel could dream.

He quickly set the tray down, and opened the door himself, not bothering to knock

When he opened the door, he came face to face with a very embarrassed and very shirtless Youngjae.

Mark knew the right thing to do would be to apologize and quickly close the door, not letting his gaze fall past Youngjae’s neck but he couldn’t help but let his eyes wander down to Youngjae’s lean torso. Mark’s eyes widened, not at the fact that Youngjae was shirtless (though the image of porcelain skin was burned into his memory.) but at the bruises that littered the younger’s torso.

Some were faded, suggesting that they were from ages ago, but there were others, angry reds and purples scattered across his back and chest which looked recent.

“Hyung, go away, I’m changing.” Youngjae said softly, looking away from Mark, his face tomato red. But Mark had known the younger long enough, to know that it wasn’t just embarrassment that kept Youngjae from meeting his eyes. The younger was hiding something and Mark wanted, no, needed to know what it was.

“Hyung go wait outside.” Youngjae repeated, this time a little louder. Mark ignored Youngjae’s demand and made his way towards the younger, tray of food outside, forgotten. He traced one particular large bruise along Youngjae’s collarbone. The younger flinched away from Mark’s touch but the elder persisted. Rage filled him as he took in the multiple bruises on Youngjae’s otherwise unblemished skin.

“Who did this to you?” Mark asked, trying his best to keep his voice level. He spun Youngjae’s, cupping the younger’s face gently, to face him.

Youngjae turned away, refusing to look at Mark. “It’s nothing.” He insisted, pushing Mark away weakly, trying to reach past Mark for his t-shirt.

Mark had to force himself not to yell at Youngjae, and demand the younger to tell him. He could see the fear in the younger’s eyes, he knew he had to treat the younger gently and tread carefully.

He passed the t-shirt to Youngjae, giving the other a reassuring smile. Youngjae didn’t return the smile, he still looked uneasy in Mark’s presence (and that hurt Mark more than anything else.)

“When did this happen?” he asked softly, asking the question that puzzled him the most. He hardly ever left Youngjae’s side, and no one ever dared to attack Youngjae when Mark was nearby. (He thanked the heavens for giving him super-strength; he would have been completely useless at protecting Youngjae without it.)

Youngjae muttered a reply that Mark couldn’t make out. “Can you repeat that?” he asked, cursing the fact that an angel’s supernatural abilities didn’t include enhanced hearing.

“At the restrooms.” The younger repeated, rubbing away the tears pricking the corner of his eyes.

If Mark had felt a little guilty before about not being able to protect Youngjae (that was his job, dammit.) now the guilt hit him like a freight train. Of course, the restroom, the one place that Mark refused to go. That was why Youngjae always looked a bit paler, after he went to the restroom. Whoever the attackers were, they were smart. They didn’t leave any bruises on Youngjae’s face or legs (the bruises would have been easily visible when Youngjae wore shorts.)

“Who is it?” Mark asked, sub-consciously cracking his knuckles, the most menacing expression Youngjae had ever seen on the elder, on his face.

“It doesn’t matter.” Youngjae insisted.

“Yes it does. I’m going to deal with them.”Mark said, he was pretty sure killing a couple of bullies wouldn’t make such a big difference to the already overpopulated world.

Youngjae’s eyes widened, filled with panic. “No no, you can’t do that.” He insisted. “It’ll just make it worse...” Youngjae trailed off. “Because they can’t catch me anywhere else. Because I deserve it, because I don’t deserve a guardian angel.” The tears that earlier pricked his eyes now made their way freely down his face. “I’m sorry hyung, that you have such a pathetic human.” He said in between sobs.

At that moment Mark saw red, if he knew how these people he wouldn’t have hesitated to kill them, or at least injure them badly enough to paralyze them for the rest of their pathetic lives. If anything, Youngjae deserved better, he deserved the whole world and more. But at the moment there was something more important, Youngjae.

“That’s not true.” Mark said, wrapping his hands around Youngjae, engulfing him in his embrace. Youngjae cried into his chest, while Mark stroked his head comfortingly. Mark had always been okay with the length of his wings, after all it wasn’t like any of the angels could fly, the wings were mainly just for decoration. But at the moment, he cursed the fact that his wings weren’t long enough to engulf Youngjae.

**

After that afternoon, not much changed between Mark and Youngjae. Youngjae was too embarrassed to bring it up and Mark didn’t want to push the younger to tell him anything if Youngjae didn’t want to. The only change in their routine was that Mark, who had invested in a nose plug, now accompanied Youngjae to the restroom as well, glaring at all the other people in there, in case they were the ones who had beat up Youngjae. Despite Youngjae insisting that it wasn’t necessary, the mental image of Youngjae covered in bruises made Mark’s decision firm.

At the moment, Mark was watching Youngjae who was standing on the balcony speak on the phone with his grandmother. The younger was laughing and blushing, probably at something weird and hilarious the elder lady said. Mark had met her one time, but even from that one meeting it was easy to see where Youngjae got his warm yet quirky nature from.

A few minutes later, Youngjae returned inside, a bright grin on his face, the kind that only the elder lady could elicit from the younger. Mark was a bit of envious of her because he was pretty sure he could never be the cause of a grin that beautiful from Youngjae.  

Suddenly Youngjae threw a pillow at Mark. Mark started at the sudden attack. He looked at Youngjae, who was laughing on the bed, in confusion. “What was that for?” he asked holding the offending pillow in one hand.

“It’s the initiation of a pillow fight.” Youngjae said simply, before dissolving into a fit of giggles again. At the back of his mind, Mark wondered what had happened to make the younger so happy, but if there was one thing he had learned in his time on Earth, it was to not question a good thing. So he chose not to question the younger’s bright mood and asked the other question he had in mind.

“What’s a pillow fight?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

Youngjae gaped at Mark incredulously, like the elder had killed his favourite grand-mom or something equally as horrifying. “How do you not know what a pillow fight is?” he asked.

Mark shrugged his shoulders, “All violence, including fights, of any form are forbidden in heaven.” He said monotonously, reciting one of the rules from the extremely thick and extremely boring rulebook that all angels were required to know from start to finish (though most of them, including Mark only bothered remembering the first 10, which were the most important.)

Youngjae looked even more surprised, “But it’s a pillow fight they’re harmless.” He protested.

Mark shrugged his shoulders again “All violence, including fights of any form are forbidden in heaven.” He repeated.

“That’s sad.” Youngjae remarked.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Mark pointed out, “What is a pillow fight?” he asked.

“It’s easier if I show you.” Youngjae suggested, a playful on his smile as he grabbed the other pillow (the one he hadn’t just thrown at Mark) and made his way towards the elder. Once he was close enough, he whacked Mark on the shoulder with pillow, not hard enough to hurt properly but definitely not softly. “Now, you hit me back and the loser is whoever surrenders first.” He explained, before darting away from Mark’s hitting radius.

Mark smirked, grabbing the pillow; he slowly made his way towards Youngjae, like a predator approaching its prey. But before he could attack, Youngjae had already scampered before him and hit him once again before darting away again. Damn it that boy was faster than Mark had expected.

After a few more tries by Mark which all resulted in a similar manner with the younger now teasing Mark from the other side of the bed, Mark decided that it was now time to play a little dirty.

Mark made his way towards Youngjae, same as before except this time before the younger could get away, he used his super speed and strength combined to tackle the younger down on to the bed.

He placed his thighs on both sides of the younger’s torso, basically straddling him, uncaring of how inappropriate their position would look if anyone chose that moment to enter. He ignored the way his heart was beating faster at their proximity. ‘ _It’s probably just the adrenaline.’_ He reasoned. He noticed the way Youngjae’s face flushed a bright red as he moved closer, but that was definitely from the exertion, probably caused by the way he was trying to thrash out of Mark’s hold to no avail.

He used one hand to pin Youngjae’s wrists down at the other to hit the younger square across the face with his pillow. He continued to press the pillow against the younger’s face. It wasn’t long before Youngjae finally waved his arm (well hand, his arm was still pinned down.) in surrender.

“I give up, I give up.” He repeated, his voice muffled by the pillow.

Youngjae’s vision, earlier completely obstructed by the pillow, was quickly replaced by the image of Mark, looking at him, his cheeks flushed and a triumphant smirk on his face. Youngjae turned tomato red as he suddenly realizing how compromising their position was. He quickly sat up, effectively pushing off Mark from his bed in the process.

“Jeez hyung. The aim is to make me surrender. You’re not trying to kill me, after all” He remarked, hoping that Mark wouldn’t comment, or better yet not notice the rising blush on his cheeks.

When he heard no response from Mark, Youngjae spoke again. “You’re not trying to kill me, are you hyung?” he said, unsure, peering down at Mark from his bed. The red head was looking at him thoughtfully as if seriously considering the question.

“Hyuung.” Youngjae whined at the lack of response.

“I’m your guardian angel, Youngjae-ah. Do you think I would kill you?” Mark reasoned, a soft smile on his face. Youngjae noted that the evening sunlight streaming in through his open window made Mark look even more angelic than usual.

“Well yeah, you’re my guardian angel.” Youngjae said softly, mind blanking at the sight of Mark . “But you also hit me over the head with a frying pan the first time we met.” He pointed out.

Mark couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory, it seemed so long ago, even if it had only been a matter of months. “Okay, I promise I’m not trying to kill you.” He said in between laughs.

“Even if you didn’t want to be a guardian angel.” Youngjae continued, still not entirely convinced.

“Even if I didn’t want to be a guardian angel.” Mark said. “At first.” He added with a smile, feeling the familiar warm glow of happiness and a little pride spread in his chest at the sight of a blushing but grinning Choi Youngjae. (Maybe it wasn’t as bright as the grin, Youngjae’s grandma could elicit from him but Mark felt proud nonetheless.)

Mark was completely content with the way things were, the less greedy part of him hoped that nothing would change in the relationship between him and Youngjae. But like all wishes made half-heartedly, it wasn’t meant to be…

**

It happened a few months later. Mark and Youngjae had just completed one year together. Mark liked the fact that their ‘anniversary’ and Youngjae’s birthday fell on the same day (obviously.) It gave him an excuse to pamper the younger human without coming off as too cheesy or emotional. Youngjae would never let him live it down if he knew that Mark counted the days they had spent together. Not that the younger wasn’t cheesy in his own way. He had insisted that the two blow out the candles together because every year he had wished for a guardian angel and now that he had one, he had nothing else to wish for, so he had insisted that Mark ‘take’ his wish instead.. Mark had wished the complete opposite of what he had wished for when he first came to Earth, he wished that Youngjae would live an extremely long life.  Mark smiled fondly at the memory of Youngjae cutting the birthday cake. (Mark had decided that out of all human food, birthday cake was definitely his favourite. For some reason it was better than regular cake. A small part of his brain that suggested that maybe it had something to do with the fact that Uoungjae had fed him the cake. But he knew that going down that track wasn’t a great idea.)

For this birthday, Youngjae’s mother had finally conceded to the years of begging and pleading and presented her son with Coco. Mark had first assumed that he would hate the white Maltese especially since Youngjae seemed so fond of her. Having someone else to spilt Youngjae’s affection and attention with did not appeal to Mark at all. But then Coco had looked at him with her big beautiful eyes and Mark had immediately fallen in love. He had always had a soft spot for dogs (maybe that’s why Jackson was his best friend, the angel was basically a puppy personified.) That dog was like the dog version of Choi Youngjae, unfairly adorable.

Mark glanced at Youngjae, who was sleeping curled up in his blanket. He smiled fondly; the younger looked so peaceful in his sleep, almost ethereal. Suddenly Mark noticed a dark blue, non-descript book on Youngjae’s beside table. His curiosity was piqued, he hadn’t seen that book before and he was pretty sure he had read all of Youngjae’s books. He picked up the book, the book looked old but well-cared for, like all of Youngjae’s books.

He opened the book carefully, making sure not to bend the spine. His eyes widened as he read what was written in it.

_Today was my 16 th birthday. Unlike what mom said, I did get a guardian angel. His name is Mark, he seems a bit cold and stand-offish but I guess that_ _’_ _s because he didn_ _’_ _t want to become a guardian angel. He said something about how his friend somehow forced him to become one. I didn_ _’_ _t really understand the story. But he seems like a really sweet and nice guy on the inside. I hope we can become friends soon._

_Hwaiting!_

_Choi Youngjae._

Mark smiled fondly at the words; of course Youngjae had been able to see right through his cold exterior, the younger could always see right through him. (That made it really hard to steal the last cookie because Youngjae would always be able to tell that it was him and then of course he would use his pout on him, the pout that was always able to break Mark’s resolve in a millisecond. Of course then before he even knew what he was doing, Mark would already be at the grocery store buying another packet of cookies to make Youngjae happy again.)

He stared at the book in his hands for a few seconds. He knew the right thing to do at this point would be to put down the book immediately and pretend like he had never seen it. Obviously Youngjae wouldn’t want Mark to read his deepest darkest thoughts. But his curiosity was overwhelming.

He contemplated the situation for a few seonds. He decided to give himself just one entry. He flipped the pages to the most recent entry. It was from the day of Youngjae’s birthday this year. It was a lot longer than the first entry. Youngjae had described the whole party vividly adding a good amount of J :D and XD s every few sentences.

Mark chuckled as his eyes skimmed over the paragraph where Youngjae described Coco. Suddenly he noticed his own name a few paragraphs later. His eyes widened and he froze as he read certain phrases.

_I wish I could kiss him_

_He means so much to me._

_But he_ _’_ _ll never see me that way, he_ _’_ _s an angel and he never wanted this._

_Falling in love with Mark-hyung is just going to bring me pain but why can_ _’_ _t I stop then?_

He set down the book, his throat dry.

 Mark would be lying if he hadn’t thought about kissing Youngjae or going on dates with him but he had always locked away those thoughts because there was no way that the younger would ever reciprocate his feelings. But according to the words written in Youngjae’s diary, the truth was very different from what he had thought.

He turned to the side, to look at Youngjae again. His dark hair was tousled, Youngjae hated his bed head but Mark found it adorable. He moved his face closer to Youngjae’s till he could count the eyelashes grazing Youngjae’s cheeks and he could hear the younger’s inhalations and exhalations

His eyes fell to Youngjae’s lips. They were set in a soft smile, different form his smiles from when he was awake but equally beautiful. Almost sub-consciously, Mark’s lips moved closer to Youngjae’s until they were just a hair breadth, if Youngjae so much as twitched their lips would meet.

Mark’s eyes widened almost comically in horror as he realized what he had been about to do. He pulled back rapidly, almost falling to the floor in his hurry. He couldn’t believe he had actually considered taking advantage of Youngjae while the younger was asleep. Mark had never felt this disgusted with himself. Sure, the younger may have similar feelings but that didn’t give Mark any right to call the shots. A relationship between an angel and a human was a tricky one filled with consequences. He didn’t know if he could do that to Youngjae. It would be easier for the younger to pursue someone else of the same species, someone who could grow old him, someone who would know the right words to say to comfort and someone who wouldn’t let their stupid desires and fantasies take over their morals and their sense of right. Basically, someone who could do and say everything that Mark couldn’t.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the sunrise was close, a few faint beams of light colouring the sky. He took one glance at Youngjae before he walked out, he needed some time to think.

**

When Youngjae woke up the next day, he sensed Mark’s absence before he opened his eyes to confirm his suspicion. He had noticed it the first time when he had woken up without Mark in his room. The elder carried with him this feeling of warmth and comfort. Without him, the room felt colder and in a non-literal sense, empty.

It wasn’t the first time the elder had left. When they had first met, Mark had left without any prior notice every few days. Of course, he would be back by the end of the day. Youngjae often wondered if Mark returned because he wanted to or because he was obligated to. He had never asked Mark about it; because he was scared of what the elder’s answer would be.

Youngjae knew they had definitely grown closer in the past year but he would always remind himself that if Mark had a choice he wouldn’t even be here and that made his heart ache in a way that even years of  being ostracized hadn’t been able to.

Younjae suddenly realized that this was the first time he had left since…he had found Youngjae’s bruises. Every time Youngjae replayed that afternoon in his head he wanted to bury himself somewhere. Even if Mark was his guardian angel, he didn’t want the elder to see his weaknesses. He wanted to be strong for Mark. But the memory of being embraced by Mark, being surrounded by the warmth and sweet smell of vanilla that Mark carried with him, was a precious one for him.

He started as he heard the voice of his mother calling him for breakfast. He quickly changed into his school uniform as quickly as he could, to avoid looking at his naked torso as much as he could. He hated seeing the bruises, faded, deep shades of red and purple marring his skin; it reminded him of how weak he was, of how he could never fight back, how his limbs would freeze when he was confronted, how he could never protect himself. He hated that, he hated himself because he always needed to be saved, like the damsel in distress. For once, he would like to be the fearless and valiant knight.

As he walked to school, he felt a little apprehensive about being cornered. As much as he hated to admit it, not having Mark with him made him much more susceptible to an attack. He felt wary feeling the stares he received as he walked down the hallway; it was a rare sight to see Youngjae without Mark next to him, glaring at all who looked at the younger funny.  Youngjae felt as though he was naked without Mark next to him.

Throughout the day, he kept his head down as much as he possibly could to avoid being noticed.  He avoided going outside his classroom as much as he could, even during lunch. Even in his favourite classes where there were interesting discussions being conducted, Youngjae kept mum to avoid being seen.

Finally the day was over. Youngjae breathed a sigh of relief, as the bell indicating the end of the school day rung.  Nothing had happened.

As he made his way out of the school building, towards the gate, he couldn’t help but feel much more relaxed than he had this morning.

 _All’s well that ends well.’_  He thought cheerfully to himself.

But just as Youngjae let his guard down he was suddenly approached by a group of 4-5 boys. And judging by the sneers on their faces they weren’t here to share Youngjae’s joy.  Youngjae felt the familiar sensation of fear crawl through him. He forced himself to keep his breathing even. These weren’t his usual bullies, so maybe they were just bored seniors looking for someone to bully and if Youngjae played it cool maybe he could make it out safely.

“Well, look who we have here?” the guy in the centre (who was presumably the leader, considering the way the others stared at reverently.) said, a smirk on his face.

Youngjae gulped visibly. He could feel the sweat break out on his forehead already. The boys hadn’t moved any closer, so now would be the perfect time to get away. After all if there was one thing that Youngjae was good at (other than video games) it was running fast and running far. But the cold fear had gripped him making it impossible for him to move.

“Where’s your little angel?” a second asked, walking closer to Youngjae.

Youngjae shrugged, which was apparently not the best way to answer a bully, judging by the way their stares turned a lot more sinister than before.

“Choi Youngjae, the weirdo who never gets to learn his lesson because his angel is always there to take care of him.” The first sneered.

“But guess your angel got tired of your weirdness and left too.” He continued. Youngjae forced the tears pricking at his eyes to stay inside. He knew from past experiences, that crying would not make the situation better, if anything it usually made it worse. (With Youngjae being beaten because he needs to be taught what happens when you cry for no reason.)

“It’s strange, I thought the two weirdos would stick to each other. Or was he just too weird for you.” The second added thoughtfully.

Youngjae who up until now had kept his head down out of fear, snapped his head up. He glared at the bullies. Maybe he was weird and strange and more than a little loopy. But Mark was perfect by any standard.

But Youngjae’s glare only served to amuse the bullies even further.

“Why are you looking at us like that? Do you actually think that you can take all of us? Someone needs to learn their place. Boys get him, the little weirdo needs to taught a lesson.”

Before Youngjae could react, he had already been kicked to the ground, one of the boys held his arms back making it impossivle for him to defend himself.

The hits fell like a rain shower, each stronger than the previous one till Youngjae couldn’t tell if he was being hit or if it was just the pain from the previous hits. Part of his brain alerted him that he was bleeding but he couldn’t tell from where. Unlike his other bullies, these boys didn’t hesitate to leave marks on Youngjae’s face.

Suddenly Youngjae heard a voice shout “Hey! What are you people doing?”  The voice sounded familiar but in his state he couldn’t place it. The bullies turned back to Youngjae. He braced himself for another avalanche of hits and punches but before he knew what was happening there was another body in front of him, standing between him and the bullies.

His protector spoke menacingly to the bullies, but Youngjae couldn’t make out what exactly he was seeing. He struggled to look up to see his protector properly.

The only thing he could make out was that whoever it was didn’t have a head full of dark red hair. But before the disappointment could flood him, everything went black.

******

Mark had been at the park for almost 7 hours now staring at the clouds, deep in thought but getting distracted every now and then by the noise and laughter of the little children playing near the swings and slides . But even so, he was no closer to figuring out what to do about the whole Youngjae situation.

On one hand, he wanted to love Youngjae, and be loved by Youngjae. He wanted to smother the other with his affection. He wanted all the cheesy romantic things for them, like going out on a first date. He could almost imagine Youngjae’s pleased smile when Mark took him somewhere nice. The way the younger would rant about the day, complete with his beautiful expressive facial reactions and wild hand gesticulations and he could almost see the image of Youngjae’s flushed cheeks when the elder would lean forward to kiss him good night, in his mind’s eye.

But on the other hand a relationship between an angel and human, as passionate and beautiful as they made it fantasy novels, was actually one rife with consequences and sacrifices. Mark wouldn’t mind giving up the whole world for Youngjae but he couldn’t force the other to give up things for Mark, something he would have to do if they ever pursued a relationship together. He wanted Youngjae to have a perfect life, where the younger would be treated like a king, the way he deserved to be treated. But that wouldn’t be possible if they ever got together, no matter how much Mark wanted it to.

But the thought of Youngjae in a relationship with someone else made Mark’s blood boil. Especially since he would always have to see it, considering that Youngjae getting a significant other wouldn’t stop Mark from being his guardian angel for the rest of his life. Mark didn’t think he could live like that, seeing the boy he loved, be happy with someone else. Mark wanted to see Youngjae happy, he really did, the human truly deserved it but he wasn’t that selfless.

He groaned, he had come to the park to clear his mind and organize his thoughts but he all the conflicting thoughts just clashed against each other

Mark let his mind wander to Youngjae. The younger was so caring and kind. Despite how badly he was treated by the rest of the school, if anyone ever asked him for help, the younger wouldn’t hesitate to leave whatever he was doing to assist someone. Usually, it would be struggling freshman. Mark didn’t like freshmen, they looked at Youngjae a little too reverently and Youngjae looked at them a little too fondly for Mark’s taste.

Suddenly, Mark’s eyes widened and he shot up from his horizontal position.

_‘_ _SCHOOL!_ _’ his mind yelled at him._

In his hurry to get away from Youngjae before he did something he regretted Mark had completely forgotten about school, Youngjae wa probably at school now. An ominous dread filled Mark. He knew for a fact that the bullies would definitely take advantage of Mark’s absence.

The mental image of Youngjae covered in bruises was all the incentive Mark needed to start running, taking advantage of his inhuman speed. He still hadn’t figured out his feelings or what to do wit him but he right now there was only one thought running through his; he was Choi Youngjae’s guardian angel and if nothing else, he was going to protect Youngjae.

**

When Youngjae finally came to, he was greeted by a pair of sharp dark eyes, the colour of coal.

“Mark-hyung.” He muttered blearily.

“Sorry to disappoint.” The voice said dryly. “It’s just me.”

Youngjae sat up, rubbing his eyes and opening them. He knew those two twin moles on the eyelid anywhere. “Jaebum-hyung.” He exclaimed.

Im Jaebum was Youngjae’s senior in junior high. He was one of the few people in school who didn’t ignore or bully Youngjae. Well him and his best friend, Park Jinyoung. On the contrary, both of them had taken Youngjae under their wing like he was the little brother they never had.

He had lost contact with both of them once they had graduated middle school. But judging by Jaebum’s uniform, they had apparently been in the same high school the whole time.

“Jaebum-hyung, it’s been so long? How have you been?” Youngjae asked, eyes bright despite the pain shooting through him in bursts.

Jaebum chuckled “Is this really the time to be talking about other people. What happened to you Youngjae-ah? And also who is this Mark-hyung?” he asked, his expression was serious but his eyes were still warm.

Youngjae shrugged, unable to meet Jaebum’s eyes “Mark-hyung is my guardian angel.” He said simply, hoping that Jaebum would get the message that he didn’t want to talk about the bullying.

“That’ s odd.” Jaebum voiced out loud.

Youngjae looked at him questioningly. “What is?” he asked.

Jaebum shrugged “It’s just that when we were in middle school, you were so excited to meet your guardian angel but when you said _my guardian angel_ you sounded so disappointed. Is he bad to you?” Jaebum asked, his warm eyes hardening.

Youngjae shook his head rapidly, regretting his decision instantly as he felt the stab of pain jolting through him. He winced.

Jaebum instantly wrapped a hand Youngjae’s neck, slowly massaging the sore spots “Easy there.” He said amusedly, but Youngjae could hear the genuine concern in his voice as well.

“Okay so tell me about this Mark.” He said, the familiar warm smile on his face that assured Youngjae that no matter what he said or thought Jaebum would always stand by him.

So Youngjae did. He told Jaebum everything about how Mark didn’t want to be a guardian angel to the way he felt his heart beat faster whenever Mark smiled at him. He told Jaebum about his fears and insecurities regarding Mark but how despite all the pain he was still unable to quell his feelings.

And Jaebum listened, a thoughtful look on his face the whole time.

“I can’t tell you that your angel definitely returns your feelings or anything because I don’t know. But either way, I can tell that he really cares about you. And I don’t a lot about guardian angels but trust me, if he actually didn’t like you or want you there would be nothing stopping him from leaving. I mean, it’s frowned upon in heaven but there’s no real law against it.” He explained.

Youngjae looked at Jaebum curiously “How do you know so much about guardian angels? You don’t by any chance..” he trailed, looking behind for Jaebum to see if he had missed someone.

Jaebum shook his head “No, I don’t have one.” He said, but he didn’t sound upset about it. “But Jinyoung does, his name is Jackson. He’s quite..something.” Jaebum finished weakly. His expression was unreadable when he talked about Jackson but if Youngjae wasn’t mistaken, he could almost swear that he saw a dusting of red on Jaebum’s cheeks.

Before Youngjae could further interrogate Jaebum, a cold voice interrupted them.

“Who are you?” Mark said glaring at Jaebum, or more specifically at Jaebum’s arm that was still around Youngjae’s neck.

Jaebum’s temper instantly flared at Mark’s tone. “I’m Jaebum, who are you?” he shot back.

“Mark, Youngjae’s guardian angel who are you?” Mark replied, glancing at Youngjae who looked scared as he watched the exchange before him.

“Great timing you have.” Jaebum said sarcastically. “I’m the guy who saved Youngjae when he was being beaten to a pulp because you were too busy gallivanting off god knows where.” Jaebum snapped.

“Jaebum-hyung!” Youngjae scolded, scandalized.

The anger in Mark instantly fizzled out and it was replaced by a deep sense of guilt. Mark had failed in the most basic duty of a guardian angel and this guy had stepped in and Mark had repaid him by snapping at him.

But that still didn’t explain why his hand was around Youngjae’s neck. Mark’s eyes narrowed as he saw they were talking to one another. He knew he was being unreasonable but having someone else that close to Youngjae didn’t sit well with Mark.

“Come on Youngjae.” Mark said, pulling Youngjae up by the wrist.

“Mark-hyung!” Youngjae yelped in a mix of surprise and pain.

Before Jaebum could stop them, Mark had already dragged them a way into a shady alcove, far from that infuriating boy, missing the knowing smirk on the dark haired senior’s face.

“Mark-hyung, what’s wrong?” Youngjae asked, concerned by Mark’s unexpected actions.

Mark’s guilt increased by tenfold when he saw the way Youngjae looked at him, full of concern, when it was the younger that had been beaten.

In his frustration, Mark punched the wall next to him, ignoring the way his knuckles cried out in pain. He couldn’t do anything right.

“Hyung! Stop it!” Youngjae yelled, grabbing Mark’s fist, lest the elder tried to hurt himself again.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Mark said, almost in tears.

“It’s okay.” Youngjae said. “It’s okay.” He repeated, forcing Mark to look at him. “But why did you leave?” he asked, unable to keep the question in any longer.

“I read your diary.” Mark confessed.

Youngjae froze. That explained why Mark had left. “I’m sorry.” He said looking away, trying his best to mean it.

Mark’s eyes widened. “No, no no.” he repeated, bringing Youngjae’s face back to meet his. “Trust me Youngjae, there’s nothing more I want to do than kiss you and hug you. And take you out one long romantic cheesy dates and the whole nine.” He said honestly, not noticing the way Youngjae was blushing at his words.

“So then, what’s the problem?” Youngjae asked, softly, still embarrassed by Mark’s honesty.

Mark looked at Youngjae seriously “It’s hard, Youngjae-ah. A relationship between an angel and a human, it’s so much harder than it looks. I don’t want you to have to sacrifice anything but a relationship between the both of us will need that. I can’t promise you that you won’t get hurt.And I want you to be happy..” Mark trailed off, trying his best to hold it together for the both of them and be selfless.

“I don’t care. I’m willing to make the sacrifice, and it’s not even a sacrifice if the result is being with you.” Youngjae said sincerely.

Mark looked at Youngjae, surprised. He took in the loving expression in Youngjae’s eyes, the upturn of his lips into one of the most beautiful smiles Mark had seen. And at that moment, Mark was done trying to be selfless. In a moment of complete selfishness, he pressed his lips to Youngjae’s , smiling at the younger’s yelp of surprise.

Youngjae kissed back enthusiastically. Sure, there were going to be trials and tribulations in their relationship. But for the first time in 17 years, Youngjae stopped thinking about the future and focused on the present.

_Fin._

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed :))  
> Feedback is appreciated ^_^  
> In case you guys didn't notice the hint, there will be a linked Jackbum fic ;) (but probably not anytime soon ;;)
> 
> So ultravioletrainbows who is basically awesome and amazing, actually drew [ guardian angel! Mark ](http://ja-oe-seon.tumblr.com/post/146066819883/so-i-really-fell-in-love-with)   
> Please go check it out :))


End file.
